BLTWY: Do they even read the stuff they put up there? (UPDATED)

I got ticked off at the MSNBC.com politics blog BLTWY the other night when they put up a half-baked steaming pile of Grover Norquist taunting President Obama (Obama's Terrified of Paul Ryan...yeah,right), then linked it on the front page of MSNBC as if it was news.

But it was late at night and by the next morning it was forgotten, a temporary annoyance from a blog that's trying to up its readership, I supposed.

Today, though, I took another trip to BLTWY-ville and found the page pictured here, (which has since been removed - see UPDATE below) which convinces me that this stuff is the product of either incredible incompetence or just plain stupidity. Or both. Probably both.

Seems that the BLTWY bozos decided to put together a "where are they now" feature on high-profile politicians who ran for office and lost last fall. Among those featured: Joe Sestak.

Except that they apparently found an April Fool's Day item from the Politicspa.com website - which churned out fake news items on April 1 like a poor cousin of The Onion - and took the whole thing seriously. Here's what BLTWY is saying about Sestak:

Joe Sestak
Then: The Pennsylvania Representative lost his reelection bid to Republican Pat Toomey

Now: Running for basically every office in Pennsylvania

Joe Sestak certainly didn't let his loss in November slow him down. On the contrary, it seems the former congressman's political aspirations have quadrupled. Sestak recently announced his bids for or Auditor General, PA Treasurer, Congress, Governor in 2014 and 2018. “Pennsylvania is in crisis, and voters deserve responsible, accountable leadership,” said Sestak in a press release. “Unfortunately there’s only one of me, so I will give it my best.” Guess that clears up our lingering suspicion that Sestak had himself cloned.

The idiots at BLTWY found this fake April Fools day item, complete with fake press release, and swallowed it whole, then regurgitated it as fact for their readers.

I either need to read less or routinely pop some ibuprofen before turning on the computer. This stuff hurts my head.

UPDATE: I guess the crew at BLTWY was rightly embarrassed by their Sestak flub - they have taken the page down and Joe is nowhere to be seen in their current version of "Where are They Now?" But if you're curious about what real reporting incompetence looks like, you can still see their original in all it's head-slapping glory courtesy of Google cache. Go have a laugh, it's worth the trip.

No Foolin' - Bush makes Presidential Poll Final Four

I just wish this was an April Fools story. It would be really funny. But it's not...and it's not.

The National Constitution Center in Philadelphia has a blog called Constitution Daily, a nice one to check every once in a while for historical and Constitution-related tidbits.

To coincide with the NCAA basketball playoffs, the blog decided to run a Presidential bracket and see who came up as the Presidential champion.

Well, they're down to their Final Four and here are the match-ups:

Washington vs. Lincoln (a tough call, I'd say, with good arguments to be made for both of them...current voting is close: Washington, 47.6% vs Lincoln 52.4%).

and

Franklin Roosevelt vs. George W. Bush And as of a few minutes ago, Bush is winning by a wide margin, 71% vs. 29% for Roosevelt. Again, this is NOT an April Fool's prank - I only wish it was. For a result like this, I'm pretty sure the blog must be using James Baker and Katherine Harris to process the votes.

Voting is still going on however, so there's still hope that a few folks who actually know something about Presidents and the Constitution (and competency) might keep this atrocity from happening.

In the great scheme of things, a blog poll doesn't amount to much, even one that's run under the auspices of a good-hearted institution like the National Constitution Center. But I'd hate to see a result where a handful of right-wing loonies ended up making a statement that will no doubt be picked up by the echo chamber to the effect that Bush is more highly regarded than Roosevelt.

Because that really would look Foolish.